- Mark Zuckerberg’s opening keynote at the recent Facebook event (now called Meta) was a sight to behold.
- According to Zuckerberg, we’d be able to work, live and play in this new universe, and Meta’s technology and innovation are what will usher us into this new always-online era.
- This is Ready Player One – specifically, it’s what would have happened if the bad guys had won.
The opening lecture by Mark Zuckerberg at the recent Facebook event (now known as Meta) was a sight to behold. The CEO rambled through his vision of a future with the metaverse at its core for an hour and a half, joined by numerous experts from his company, as reported by Techradar.
The Online Future
As our digital and virtual worlds merge, we will no longer be restricted by our physical limits. We’ll be able to work, live, and play in this new universe, according to Zuckerberg, and Meta’s technology and innovation will guide us into this new always-online future.
Yet, when Zuckerberg proceeded to make grandiose claims about a future we may see in a decade or two, we realised we’d already heard it all. This is Ready Player One, and it depicts what would have happened if the antagonists had triumphed.
The Dark Timeline
Whether you like or dislike the scenario in Ready Player One, the Oasis, the book’s major location, sounds like a digital paradise.
It’s a fantastic virtual reality world where gamers can go anywhere, do anything, and be anybody they choose, free of most of life’s constraints — it’s the internet’s entire potential realised.
But, like the internet, the Oasis isn’t perfect.
The Oasis in Ready Player One is revealed to be corrupted at its heart by corporate avarice, with individuals vying for absolute ownership of the space and already exerting significant control over how users interact with it.
Thankfully, the corporation is beaten before the end of the story, and players are left to run the show for everyone’s benefit.
It does it by approaching the subject from all sides.
Meta’s Horizon World
Meta, on the other hand, has Horizon World covered in terms of software.
But it’s also working on the hardware — such as the Oculus Quest 2, Ray-Ban Stories, and the soon-to-be-released Project Cambria headsets – that will let players interact with virtual reality, as well as the overall infrastructure that will allow the metaverse to function.
But, for all of Zuckerberg’s words, it’s what he didn’t say that worries us.
And how will Meta fund itself and keep the lights on once we’ve all figured out how to get into the metaverse?
Is it Our First Choice?
In terms of keeping the lights on, as part of the Connect presentation, we were shown the potential for businesses to advertise and operate in the metaverse.
We examined how the brand Forever Mood might sell both digital and physical versions of their candles in this example.
Businesses will find it simpler than ever to integrate into our daily lives in the digital space, offering us less freedom from adverts than ever before and providing Meta with a steady cash stream in the form of a commission.
As far as guardians of the metaverse go, Meta isn’t our first choice.
The problems that are beginning to emerge are strikingly similar to what readers and moviegoers would have witnessed if Ready Player One had concluded with IOI as the Oasis’s leaders.
It’s a world we don’t want to be a part of.
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Source: Techradar
